Vocal Range

Supported Range

Voice Type

Strengths/Achievements

Has shown large improvement from debut to recently in pitch, support and placement

Semi agile voice

Relaxed falsetto up to F5

Able to support notes as low as C#3 consistently

Does better in the fifth octave than Chen and D.O.

Able to produce a connected head voice

Points for Improvement

Unbalanced, throaty mix above A4

Notes below C#3 are more often than not, unsupported, coming out quiet or breathy

Occasional sloppy runs

Above F5, falsetto becomes airy and squeezed

Forces his jaw forward during belts, causing jaw tension

Sings with a lowered soft palate at times, causing a more nasal sound

Worst Intonation in the EXO vocal line

Head voice is inconsistent

Registers

Lower register: Shows support down to C#3, with one or two supported C3s. Anything below this is unsupported, where the vocal cords become disconnected and the sound becomes unstable, airy and quiet.

Mixed register: Bright and Resonant. Able to retain support and resonance up to G#4/A4. Anything above is strained, however. Generally a healthy and balanced full mix is used around his supported range, which then becomes very heady and pushed as he ascends above his supported range.

Upper register: The most developed falsetto in EXO, able to produce relaxed strain free notes up to F5 consistently, has shown lots of improvement in this area in relation to pitch and control, as well as transitions.

Agility

Second most agile voice in EXO. Decent precision and pitch, though sloppy runs do occur. He has shown a large improvement in this area, showing good precision and note separation and simpler runs and scales, as opposed to earlier in his career where pitch in general would be an issue for him and vocal runs would result in him sliding through notes without a direction or clear idea of the vocal run he’d attempt.

Overall analysis

Baekhyun possesses a bright, masculine voice that shows more in his middle range. He is often chosen as one of EXO’s lead vocalists for solo performances and duets, and is often given the highest notes in EXO songs due to the brightness and headiness of his mix, which although strained, allows for him to stay in a high range for a longer period of time with less vocal effort than Chen or Kyungsoo would need. He has shown one of biggest improvements amongst EXO vocalists in his breath support, control and range, allowing for him to better show the naturally light but masculine characteristics of his voice, which sits in a tenor range and due to the lightness and youthful qualities of his voice, would most likely be classified as a Light Lyric Tenor.

Baekhyun has shown improvement in his consistency in support in his lower range, most notably in his musical performances, where he was able to vocalize down to C#3 with a clean, supported and forward tone, as opposed to the inconsistent quiet and airy tone he had shown earlier in his career. Because of the other lower voices in EXO such as Chanyeol or even Kyungsoo, Baekhyun usually stays above C#3. When he does sing below C#3, however, it is often quiet without support. Usually, whenever he sings C3 or lower, he tends to go off pitch, usually being sharp, because of how uncomfortable his range is to his voice, like in “Old Song” and “The EXO Low Note Battle“. Baekhyun’s lowest note is a F#2, which he hit in the EXO Low Note Battle. This is possibly the lowest note in his range as he was unable to process any lower.

Baekhyun’s most comfortable and developed area of his voice is his mix. When Baekhyun first started, notes like G4/G#4 were unstable with fast, uneven vibrato, like in “What Is Love” and some live performances of “Miracles In December“, or jaw tension from pushing his jaw forward such as in “Baby, Don’t Cry“. As time passed, he was able to develop consistent resonance on G#4, and begin showing resonance on A4, for an example “아직도 어두움밤인가봐“, “The Answer Is You” and some live performances of “Baby, Don’t Cry”. Baekhyun had at one point surpassed Kyungsoo in the F4 – A4 range, becoming EXO’s second most consistent vocalist behind only Chen. However now one can say they’re still quite even in consistency within that range up to G#4, whereas Kyungsoo seems to be slightly more consistent on A4/Bb4. Like Kyungsoo, Baekhyun’s mix above A4 becomes unbalanced, However, while Kyungsoo’s mix has too much chest, Baekhyun’s mix becomes too heady and also takes on a throaty quality. Examples of this are his Bb4 and F5 in “What Is Love”, the phrased B4s in “My Lady“, his sustained D5 in With You on Immortal Song 2, his Eb5 in the “Wolf Demo“, his E5s in “Wolf“, and his F#5s in the “High Note Battle“. Because of how heady his mix is, he is able to belt and sustain higher notes in the 5th octave and endure strain better than Kyungsoo and Chen.

His upper register is the best in EXO. He is able to sing in a relaxed falsetto without strain up to F5, such as in”진정 난 몰랐네“, but once he goes above this, he begins to push too much air through his cords causing him to produce strained, unstable notes. He has once shown the ability to sing in a connected relaxed head voice, such as the F#5s in the studio recording of “Moonlight”. However his ability to produce a connected head voice can be inconsistent. This is a large improvement as closer to debut, Baekhyun’s falsetto was shown be rather nasal, pushed, strained, and airy even in the middle 4th octave, like his performance of “Love Song“. His highest note is a C#6 on “EXO High Note Battle“.

A light lyric voice, Baekhyun’s agility is the second best in the group. He is easily capable of performing scales on both extremes of his voice with precision such as in the A2 from “Love, Love, Love” and the F#5s from “Moonlight”, and can also perform runs in his mixed voice, like in “아직도 어두움밤인가봐“, “Open Arms“, “Miracles In December” and “What Is Love”. Despite this, Baekhyun still produces sloppy runs such as when attempting Kyungsoo’s “Black Pearl” run on live performances. Earlier in his career, he would consistently produce sloppy, imprecise runs as most, if not all, of the runs on his “Love Song” performance with Chanyeol. Baekhyun used to have rather bad problems with pitch, to the point of being nearly unable to remain in key while singing “Acapella“, also shown in this “Compilation“. While Baekhyun’s pitch has improved, he still has tendency to go off pitch more frequently than ChenSoo. Earlier on, Baekhyun also didn’t sing with a risen soft palate, causing a more nasal placement when singing. This has been corrected though, as nasality appears far less than before.

The most popular member of EXO’s vocal line, Baekhyun’s voice is distinct and easy to recognize in their songs. Due to his extensive mixed range, he is often compared to label mate, TVXQ!’s Changmin. With Baekhyun’s growth rate, it’s quite possible that he might be able to fix his issues with time, most importantly correcting his pitch issues and evening out his mixed voice.

Musicianship

Baekhyun has some knowledge of musicianship, having a decent ear of when to add in runs. Baekhyun prefers to avoid straying too fair from the original, not adding many runs or changes to avoid messing up. Despite this, Baekhyun has the ability to add dynamics in order to emphasize the feeling in the song, such as in his duet with Chen on Immortal Song 2 where he sings the beginning softer and more airy to show sorrow over the person he loves leaving as compared to later in the performance where he sings in a more powerful dynamic to show anger at the bitter betrayal of his trust.

could you explain me what does it mean vowel is distorted ?i mean the problem in the vowel or the support itself??(i am sorry i am just trying to understand and i thought if he strains i will see his veins in his neck so can one support and his veins popping out ?? i know it is not about the veins but i thought it is sign would help me until i understand the whole thing)

Could you kindly analyze the performance of D.O., Chen, Baekhyun and Suho of this video? Is it supported or falsetto at 3:10? Is it Bb4 at 3:36? And it is supported but strained? Besides, D.O.’s voice is quite strained and he seems pretty tired to me And there seem a consistency problem with Chen 1:09 and Suho at 0:42?

3:10? It’s mostly mixed, with a quick falsetto at the beginning. I’m sorry, but why did you say supported OR falsetto? Those aren’t opposites. 3:36 What do you mean supported but strained? Do you mean supported with tension? No, it’s just quite strained. Lots of throatiness and a closed throat. 3:52 This was better. 1:09 I’m not sure I get what you mean with the word consistency here, I don’t hear anything..specific except for maybe a bit of pitch. I don’t hear necessarily strain from D.O., fatigue to an extent yes. 0:42 I hear no true support, he’s mostly breathy and flat.

Many thanks for your quick reply. Sorry for my poor English. By consistency actually what I mean is a problem with pitch. And at 3:47 is it a falsetto or a head voice? And how can we tell a strained voice from a throaty one? By strained do you mean singing purely with the throat? Thank you~~

Hi recently bbh an insta live , I read some comments some said it was really good other said that bbh lower register was really horrible , can you please give me your opinion about it 🙂 it start at 01:50 , thank you in advance and also happy new year 🙂 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMMrb7ueq30

Just a suggestion on one of Baekhyun’s newer performances that I really liked that you can add. Also something I’d like to ask is if at 1:40 Baekhyun supports but does not resonate? It sounds very nice nonetheless.

Oh yes thank you, I agree. I was just wondering if Baekhyun could resonate because I saw a youtube video of Support vs Resonance and he wasn’t in it. But thank you for letting me know he is able to resonate. Much appreciated.

In which aspects does Baekhyun have to improve in order to become a proficient vocalist?
And is the gap between him and D.O. big? I’m just asking because Kyungsoo is a proficient vocalist and I’m curios if Baekhyun is actually close to being as good as him. ^^

It’s not, as you can see in the chart, the gap is quite small considering. He’d have to work on consistency of support and openness, as he still tends to get caught singing with his throat when wanting to sing more opened with better support and more volume. He will push from his throat, especially around A4 and at times even G#4. He drops support, more than anything.

Hi I wanted to ask what’s the note that baekhyun is singing in these two videos and is there any support? In the first video the note seems strained at first but then it seems like he opened up more (I don’t really know who to explain it) https://youtu.be/NLYZP9apwJU?t=127 . Is the same note in this performance better https://youtu.be/RDyZ-MlEvCw?t=141 ?

Both are G#4’s, well placed with enough openness. The issue is that the vowel for him is still not comfortable enough, so his jaw isn’t loose enough and his throat not opened enough so there’s some constriction.

Sorry for bothering you again lol but they keep droping all these live performances and I have so many questions. https://youtu.be/9AinoYPvxZM?t=844 I believe Baekhyun is using head voice here right? If this is head voice is it an example of a supported head voice or is it pushed and strained?

hey, first of all thank you so much for your efforts! baekhyun recently sang the national anthem and i’m curious about your thoughts on it! it seems like he sang in a different way but i feel like he still did well?

3:20 What head voice? You mean the whole line? He sounded like he dropped some support with not enough consistency in his stream of air. But he had support.
6:23 Sounds like head voice to me. 6:36 really shouty Bb4. 6:47 tight but placed in the head.
12:56 The Bb4 wasn’t too bad but it was on a tight vowel, so he wasn’t fully opened.
14:5…50? Or 05? This one isn’t live either way. So far everything was live, but this one isn’t.
10:04 there was a G#5 to Bb5 there, I was like Oh? hello? lol

Hi, before that i wanna say thank you for your post bcs i learnt soo much from it. Your videos too! Before watching your video i was like sooo blind about all those theories about vocal, but now that ive watched your videos, i know a teeny little bit of it. I notice your sarcasm too but i found it funny lol. Anyway, i have questions for you

1. I notice that baekhyun often drop his support. Although he surely can do it but its like he choose not to. Why do you think he did that? Is it maybe because of his stamina or what?

2. Id like to know more the difference between support and resonance. Am i wrong if i differentiate them based on breath control? I mean if someone sing openly but theyre out of breath then it means support, but if they sing openly without lack of air/breath then it means resonance?

3. About belting, is it good or bad? Ive seen baekhyun belting in el dorado live but it was like, idk, he does reach that high notes but it is soo strained? Cmiiw though, i am an amateur lol. Anyway do you perhaps know/have seen baekhyun good belting? Idk what the words but i mean when he is belting but sounds good/with technique.

4. A little oot, but do you have recommendation who is male solo/group who sings veeeery good? Like who is the male version of kim so hyang to you?

5. Lastly this question is for you. What motivation did you have to make your videos and those analysis about kpop singer vocal? You really enjoy that or what? Bcs sometimes i read so many childish comment about their idol being analyze or (the harsh words) judge, but you seem fine by that. So yeah im just curious though

Thats it. I know its soo long im sorry, but yknow, this amateur is reaaally curious lol. Anyway thankyou ahmin!! Lots of love from
me ❤

1. Lack of consistency with breath control as well as condition reasons can affect consistency in support.

2. Resonance has to do with placement and openness, on top of support. Without support you can’t produce resonance.

3. It depends. People use the term belting as a synonym for mixed voice or for a chest dominant mixed voice. Strain is bad, but belting with support shouldn’t be bad.

4. Jung Dongha, Naul, Peabo Bryson, Park Hyoshin.

5. Well it’s because my passion is to help and educate. People will always be childish but that’s not my problem. It can hurt but we can grow and get over it. Constructive criticism is necessary to grow in life.

2. I wouldn’t look at it like that. A supported sound is when the vocal cords are connected and without tension. You can be nasal and be supported (Junho 2PM). You can be open and supported (Wendy). To get a good grasp of this, I suggest going to various analyses here and clicking on the links where the notes are supported. Resonant sound is by default supported but the sound rings because the vocalist lowers the jaw enough and creates space in the back of the throat, and places or aims the sound in between the cheekbones. This is called “placing the voice”. By the way, part of this is in the criteria or about the voice page.

3. I don’t mean to be rude. Did you read this analysis or skim over it? He is belting all the time. The analyst has a section on Baek’s belting and makes a distinction on Baek belting with good technique and strained bad technique. It’s all there.

4. There are many vocalists on this blog with many specialties. It depends on what you’re into. Male version of her? I think comparing males to females is complicated due to the difference in the biology of our voices. But I’ll leave this question to the admins.

5. That’s for the admins. They are great at their jobs. They strictly analyze vocal technique, not tone, not their facial expressions, not the emotions the listeners feel, simply the way the vocalist uses their vocal cords for singing and his/her habits. That’s it.

*It’s okay to be an amateur because we all start there. My personal recommendation is to read a lot of the about pages and combine that with the videos Ahmin made on support and stuff. You will literally have learned months of vocal technique theory in hours. After the first read of those informative pages, the analyses become really easy to digest afterwards. Then you get decently good at telling strain from support. By the way, I’m an amateur too. I just got here a little earlier than you.

Hello, Ahmin! I feel a little sad knowing that Baek Hyun is a low vocalist, when he listened as one of the best singers in the kpop -for ne- ): I was wondering if errors or failures of Baek Hyun are easy to fix with a good vocal training, or just this would make a bad singer? Thank you for your analysis ❤

Oh, sorry, my english is bad ;; But yeah, Lunar is right. I mean, in the hashtag? “Mid-low range vocalists” I have interpreted this as a “low-ranking vocalist”. Maybe I’m wrong because I don’t know much about music ):

1. I really expected Baekhyun to improve more in 3 years, but seems like he didn’t show anything new. I don’t know may be he’s more interested in dancing than singing currently. In recent albums I can see he’s getting less lines than before, is it because DO,chen & Suho( I mentioned suho cause he got almost same or even more lines than Baek) improved more than him or somehow he’s getteng bad?

2. I don’t know about music but i think Barkhyun prioritise emotion & style more than healthy techniques. Sometimes, he looks so emotional while singing, is that affect on singing??

3. Overall, what is your opinion about Baekhyun as a main vocal of Exo for 6 years? Did you noticed any signs that could damage his singing? I asked cause I think he strain a lot.

1. (Paraprhrasing) When idols go to music shows, they work for roughly 12 hours a day in rehearsals and prepping. Then they get home and record until the a.m. Sleep for 3-4 hours. Then repeat.

This is me commenting, who could improve under those conditions? I used to be hard on some of these chaps too. But when you realize how these companies don’t invest in their vocal health, don’t know the difference in voice types, actively destroy their self-esteem (taemin being told his voice was only good for blending in, and heechul being told to just not sing), and give them songs out of their comfort zones, you literally drop all of your preconceptions. That’s why I’m placing all my bets on quality trainers like Ahmin and the other admins.

Hi! I remember you saying that Baekhyun’s head voice is inconsistent and “hardly ever supported.” What do you mean by that last remark? There are many ways of not supporting; could you be a bit more specific? Thanks!

Supporting as in creating a consistent stream of airflow hitting his vocal cords and maintaining a strong connection and stretch of his vocal cords. Most of the time his problem is a lack of enough connection and development of the vocal cords where below F5, he’s too shallow or breathy and above that he’s just pushing with air and a high larynx.

No it not the same, a shallow head voice is an undeveloped head voice that Got connection but lack support . Breathy head voice can be stylistic but in baekh case it lack of proper cord closure, too much air and improper placement, and yeah he use Falsetto most of the time.

Hi!
So Exo CBX had an high (and low) note battle and I got curious about one thing in it.
At 2:20 Baekhyun tried to sing a note (was it A4? I tried to check but I’m not sure) but it was bad, flat I think. But then at 2:26 he sang it well and the sound was totally different from what he was singing before. What was this difference? Was the first one not supported?
Here’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA4V8HKoRYg

Hi, not the admin, here to help. The thing with this clip is that none of them are really trying to sing well, just to sing on pitch. Baek’s first A4s turned into Bb4s. His last A4 was clearer in pitch. It had a really pushed out shouted quality, so I would call it strained. Btw, I’m not an expert, but this fits with the quality of his tense A4s in contrast to his supported ones.

This is a late reply to one of your earlier comments, concerning Michael Jackson. I wanted to educate you a bit on his voice, no offense intended.

Michael was a high/lyric tenor. In his childhood, he was a soprano. As an adult in the 80’s, he had an octave range of about 3.6+, the lowest note being an E2 & highest a B5. In the 90’s & after, he went to 4 octaves: F#2 – Eb6. So, he could sing about 44 notes.

According to his vocal coach of many years, Seth Riggs, most of Michael’s high notes were in HEAD VOICE, not falsetto. Michael rarely used falsetto, to the point some have argued he may have been a countertenor (very rare nowadays, more common in the 17th century, which is why female sopranos are the ones doing their roles now in classical music). His lower range was rarely showcased as well, as Michael preferred not to sing so low, but he did occasionally do some low notes in some of his songs, & there are short videos of him on YouTube where he would speak in a deep voice (and folks who were close to him say Michael had a deep voice).

His expansive range, unique voice, & good technique, allowed him to be able to sing in several different styles throughout his 30-year career. I suggest you listen to songs like, “Earth Song”, “You Are Not Alone”, “Unbreakable”, “Butterflies”, “Morphine”, & “Break Of Dawn” (just to name a few), that showcase how he could go from soft & velvety to angry & gritty. You can even listen to these in acapella if you look for them on YouTube. There are rare audio recordings of him vocalizing with his vocal coach in the 90’s; you can also find these on YouTube. You can also find interviews online (mostly in text form) of Seth Riggs when talking about MJ, being amazed at his talent & hard work.

When it comes to live performances, I suggest you check out these videos, which are compilations that show some of his live singing:

This is quite a lot, I know, but I just felt if you are ever interested, here is some of this info. ^-^

Children aren’t sopranos, they’re trebles. Their passaggi are similar to females so boys who haven’t gone through puberty can’t be voice typed into adult voice types. I have a whole video about how the term countertenor shouldn’t be used in contemporary music because it’s not applicable. The rest I appreciate it but I’d rather stay away from even touching upon the subject of vocalists outside of Kpop as that’s just what we do here and it will just end up going in circles but thank you, honestly. I really do appreciate your effort. I don’t think I should have even talked about him or anybody else non-kpop for that matter because it’s irrelevant.

Thank you, I appreciate your reply. I also thought you might say something similar, considering you quickly avoided the topic previously. I just felt like I had to say it, because I dislike it when people who don’t know, wrongly criticize The King Of Pop. It seems he’s sadly underrated as a vocalist when that’s what he was originally known for as a boy.

Anyways, there are such terms as ‘boy soprano’ but I don’t know enough about it, so I mentioned it because that’s what people say (not to mention his high notes sounded better than mine, & I’m a soprano, haha). Like I said, countertenor is what some people claim he might have been; I, for one, wouldn’t be sure. Michael’s vocal coach never claimed it.

Countertenor is not a voice type, it’s a role. You’re not born a countertenor, you’re taught to be one. And I was speaking about him strictly based on vocal technique and I stand by my thoughts but I’d rather not discuss it. Agreeing to disagree is fine by me.

I never claimed Michael was a countertenor nor did I say he was born one. I said some people claim he might have been, considering his easeness hitting high notes in his adulthood, & how most high tenors can’t go as high as him unless they resort to falsetto (and a lot of times, not even). As a child, he wouldn’t have been called such a term either. It is true, however, that Michael never lost his ability to sing the high notes he did as a child; in fact, he expanded his range over the years, including lower notes (to the point some crazy people think he might have a been a baritone, which was NOT the case).

I hope he nails those A4s someday. The EXO main vocals have a lot of untapped potential. A4 is a type of sub-boss enemy for tenors and Bb4 is a full boss in a videogame. I think it’s because A4 feels like you have to change your placement in order to sing it well.

That’s actually a perfect analogy if I ever saw one. I feel like a lot of vocalists have a range where they’re like Superman, and then that there’s that note in the giant kryponite powered suit that’s just like come at me lol. C5 for sopranos seems like one of those notes.

– His voice shows agility. Examples: Thunder, Lucky One.
– Has good support/sustain. Example: Really I Didn’t Know.
– Shows resonance. Example: singing Lucky One live.
– Has a deep, warm and husky voice and is capable of vocal dynamics and vibrato. Examples: Like Rain, Like Music, Love Song and Just Once.
– Falsetto. Examples: the high note on Playboy and the ending of Monster.
– Riffs and runs. Example: https://youtu.be/DBqQRem2MP0

Hello Ahmin! So I’ve been thinking a little bit about this… what exactly is the problem with Baekhyun’s head voice? According to what you say, the “problem” is that he is shallow/breathy below an F5 and above an F5 he pushes the air and has a high larynx, is that right? My question is, what’s wrong with being shallow or breathy? Even if it means his vocal cords aren’t trained, singing in a breathy way doesn’t damage the voice. And if it’s his style, there’s nothing wrong with that. I personally think it sounds great the way it is. Above an F5 I get the pushing air thing, but doesn’t everyone raise their larynx eventually once they hit the upper fifth octave? I highly doubt many tenors can hit notes that high with a neutral larynx. As long as Baekhyun isn’t damaging his voice with his current technique, it should be fine, right? And technically he could always improve, but I don’t see this as being a problem. You count this and his inconsistent support as “flaws,” true? I don’t think breathiness or shallowness are flaws, but rather ways of singing. There are many ways of singing other than just the “supported” operatic voice. I feel like most of the time you emphasize “supported” singing as the best way of singing or the ideal way of singing, but isn’t that in the end your preference? Singing without support is fine. A singer doesn’t have to always have a supported sound in order to be considered a strong vocalist. I understand what you mean is that it’s “limiting” to the voice to only have one way of singing, but Baekhyun does know how to support. Of course, I mean no hate or animosity, it’s just something I’ve been wondering after talking to a couple of vocal experts. Thank you in advance!

Hello, I am no admin, but I saw some things that you might have misconstrued in the analysis that I would humbly like to address because others have confused them with other things as well. As far as I know, singing breathy over-irritates the vocal cords and actually limits vocal cord development and muscle strength because they are not connecting completely. It’s not something that is meant to be over-abused in any register. When he means breathy, the admin is alluding more to the fact Baek isn’t connecting the falsetto enough for it to become a head voice, which is connected and not really airy by default. No one dislikes it as a style, it’s just a desire to see him develop that potential head voice (like the F#5 in Moonlight).

“His voice isn’t trained…”supported” operatic voice”.” I sincerely hope you don’t mean his voice isn’t trained in the context of classical singing and don’t mean that any form of support on this blog is to be automatically associated with Opera. Ahmin himself has stated countless innumerable times this isn’t a classical singing blog. That style of vocalizing trains the larynx and vocal cords in different ways. If this were a classical blog, female mix voices wouldn’t even be analyzed or addressed at all in any female vocal analysis. Also, many males can hit F5 with a neutral larynx. Ryeowook, Jonghyun, Kyuhyun, Na-ul, Dongha, again it comes down to development. Having a head voice always helps a vocalist in many ways.

One last thing. Friend, supported singing is simply healthy singing. That’s it, and that’s why it’s ideal. If Daesung from BigBang supported better, he wouldn’t have nodules. Because of his nodules, (confirmed by him) his parts in group songs were accomodated or limited to aid his declining vocal health. If he supported better, the chances of nodules would have lessened considerably. Support stems simply from a health standpoint. There are countless K-pop vocalists whose voices will be preserved better in the future if they support. Park Bom is one who also comes to mind. BTW, I know you meant no hate or animosity. You’re really considerate with your words, so thanks for being nice about your approach.

Hello, thank you for the reply, although I do wish it were the admin’s reply. All of my words are taken from long conversations with my vocal instructor, who is a vocal expert like Ahmin with years of experience. What you just listed now is Ahmin’s belief on the voice. What I talked about were my vocal instructor’s belief on the voice. Vocal experts disagree on many things, so it’s not like there’s a “right” or “wrong” in this scenario.

I never disagreed that it would be ideal for Baekhyun to train his head voice. I would also love to see him gain a strong supported head voice. But my point is that labeling his current head voice as a “problem” is, well, problematic. It’s a style of singing, so I don’t see the need to call it a “problem” or a “flaw.” Singing in a breathy way does prevent the vocal cords from being trained to connect, I am aware. But this shouldn’t be counted against him in my opinion, because in the end people enjoy the way his head voice sounds, and that’s what matters.

The reason why I brought up the “supported operatic voice” is because in Ahmin’s video he tends to bring up opera singers in order to show “good technique.” I believe once in his head voice video he used an example of an opera singer to show a good head voice and compared it to a pop singer’s head voice. You can’t compare opera singers with pop singers; they’ve got different styles. And speaking of head voice, many in the vocal pedagogy world disagree on what head voice and falsetto even ARE, so talking about what a head voice and falsetto should SOUND LIKE is more likely to be an expert opinion than actual objective fact.

As for the neutral larynx on F5s, I doubt their larynxes are actually neutral, as singing in the fifth octave is naturally going to raise your larynx. I was talking to my vocal instructor about the G5s in Dangerous Woman and I complained that I felt my larynx was high. She told me as long as there is no pain, discomfort, or burning sensation, having a high larynx is fine. She also said if I figured out a way to sing such high notes with a completely neutral larynx I would have solved the million dollar question! So singing with a high larynx does not equal poor technique if it doesn’t hurt or cause discomfort.

And for the “supported singing is healthy singing,” well of course that is Ahmin’s belief. Supported singing is healthy singing in many ways, I admit. For example, straining is damaging to the voice. But what about non-strained unsupported singing? Having a shallow voice doesn’t damage the voice much. It just means you’re not breathing properly. Keeping the voice intact with good technique is ideal, I agree completely. But in the end if everyone sounded “supported” most of the time, we would miss out on the beautiful voices that I love (e.g.: husky voices).

My point is that everything you just talked about is Ahmin’s expert opinion on the voice. There are so many disagreements in the vocal pedagogy world that it is impossible to say which is the “right” way of singing. To me, Baekhyun could always improve, and I love to see improvement, but just because he sings in a way that doesn’t fit with an expert opinion, doesn’t mean it’s a “problem.” Thank you for having this conversation with me.

Im very thankful to Ryan for his reply because he saved me time and addressed things well.

I completely appreciate and agree with your points, people disagree on many things. Now I must say you seem to be confusing preference of style and effective vocal technique. We don’t think that an airy quality is inferior. If used on purpose to create style, it’s great. It becomes a problem when it’s not a choice but instead the only option the vocalist has, which THEN is limiting. In the case of a vocalist who supports and connects, they can choose to sing breathy and light for style or not and that’s a sign of vocal skill.

I do not recall using classical singers’ head voices at any point in my videos except for the video about countertenors because my point was that it should be a term exclusive to classical singing. Other than that, I don’t think I would’ve used a classical singer’s head voice in any of my videos because that’s like you said, you can’t compare a classical head voice and a pop one. So if I did that, I am confused as to why I would have but I do want to believe I wouldn’t have done that.

I don’t live in a world where I believe the larynx doesn’t move. When we say high larynx, we don’t mean a larynx that moved. Cause you’re right, the larynx has to move slightly up and down to adjust to the stretch of the vocal cords depending on what part of your range you’re in. The problem lies in having a larynx that’s too high to the point where the muscles are squeezed and there’s less space for openness and the vocal cords lose the freedom to vibrate at will without the need of tension.

Again you’re relying on a lot of “I love” and “I like” for styles and voices. We are merely talking about the most effective ways to develop the voice to their fullest potential, not a preference of style. I have preferences in style too, I sometimes like the way Soyou sounds for certain songs or like Camila Cabello, but a preference for style is not necessarily the same as being effective vocally. But this isn’t me saying I like a style, I don’t actually even necessarily like Sohyang’s style, but liking something is different from acknowledging hard work and still. Singing shallow or airy doesn’t require much skill, effort nor time or development but to get to where Sohyang is vocally does and that deserves at least some acknowledgement. So I do ask that you not paint me as a preference speaker trying to pass off my preference as a law because realistically you don’t actually know what I prefer because my musical taste is actually kind of broad. Even I don’t know what I like until I hear it.

Hello Ahmin, thank you for your time in replying. I have never said good technique isn’t ideal, or that good technique shouldn’t be acknowledged. My point is that singing breathy or shallow isn’t a “problem.” Technique is one of the things that makes a singer. I understand this blog is focused on technique, but using words such as “problem” to paint Baekhyun’s head voice as something flawed is, I believe, judgmental. Why not use the term “something that can be improved” instead? And I do apologize, it was the countertenor video where you compared an operatic head voice to a pop head voice.

I think my story will fit really well here. There was a time when I couldn’t support. My vocal instructor taught me to connect my vocal cords, and now I have learned not just to support but to resonate in most of my chest voice and even mix. You even reviewed my cover of What Is Love and mentioned my breathiness, which I have spent months on improving. I agree! Good technique is great and it taught me to become a better vocalist. But just because someone has a more shallow and breathy voice that they haven’t trained yet, doesn’t mean it’s problematic. It just means they have room to improve.

The reason why I brought up the term “expert opinion” is not because I’m saying you simply talk from a preference viewpoint, but rather because since everyone disagrees on most things in the vocal pedagogy world, there are very few facts people agree on. For example, as I mentioned, people disagree on what head voice and falsetto even are. People disagree on what support and strain are. So a lot of things the person above have stated come from this blog’s viewpoint on vocal technique, which other vocal experts may disagree on. I apologize if I looked like I was trying to imply you passed your preference as a fact.

I agree with many things you wrote in your reply. I have no problem with the idea that a strong vocalist can choose to have a breathy or more supported voice. The thing is that they have the choice to sound a certain way. But even though it’s limiting to only sound breathy, and it’s not “good technique,” it works for the songs Baekhyun sings, and it sounds good to many listeners. Once again, technique is only one of the many things that comprises a singer. I would love to see him improve his head voice, but the way it is now isn’t a “problem.” I guess my issue is with your use of this word. Supported singing is the healthiest way of singing, but unsupported singing isn’t always unhealthy or worse. I appreciate your reply, and I hope you have a nice day!

Ah so I’m sorry so there’s an issue with the word problem here! So I didn’t write this analysis entirely alone, I added information after it was first written and so the word problem being used wouldn’t have been my personal choice, so I do understand how you feel and agree that’s not the best way to talk about his head voice. It’s a poor choice of words.

As for other points it’s fine and I’m very happy to hear about your vocal improvement!

In an informal guide about NCT’s Jaehyun from Senpai Jecho on YouTube, it said that he was “a beautiful baritone.” I doubted that first statement, so I decided to go back to Matheus’s YouTube channel to find his baritone vocal myths video. After a bit of searching, I saw Matheus talking about Baekhyun supposedly mistaken as a baritone due to his chestier mixing. (I apologize if I paraphrased incorrectly there.) Then a thought came to my mind: “Is Jaehyun basically the Baekhyun of NCT in terms of his voice type being mislabeled by some people?” Here’s what the former channel used for examples of Jaehyun’s baritone status:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UGMDJ9kZCA (1:09-1:19)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ps_RFHjY4 (0:02-0:16)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_NugM0cZbE (0:18-0:30)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmH948yZwhE (0:32-0:46)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHBmcR_XFG8 (1:07-1:37)
I know I’m going a bit overboard in trying to find an answer to my question, and I apologize for that. But I’m just trying to clarify about a person’s voice type, nothing else. Is Jaehyun a tenor, or is he a baritone?

If I’m not mistaken, this F5 is mentioned in this analysis as falsetto. Not the admin, but I personally couldn’t hear him well because the falsetto was so airy. Since falsetto is a disconnected register= unsupported

Hello admin this isn’t a question but why haven’t you updated this page now? It’s been years since you last updated, is there a reason why? I know a lot of people actually base their opinions from this page and it’s very helpful to update it and add new stuffs for them to know.